CIRC UMA MBULATI ON.
Touaf, . . . ARAB. I Parikanna, . . .
Dago', . . . CELTIC. I PradakShaTIS, . . SANSK.
The circumainbulation of sacred places has ever been part of the ritual of worship of .Asiatic nations. The 3fahomedan in circumarnbulation, Touaf, presents his left shoulder ; the Hindu and Buddhist in Pradakshana walk round with the right side towards the fane or idol, and this would appear to be the original form of the rite. Its conjectural sig,nificance is an imitation of the procession of the heavenly bodies, the motion of the spheres, and the dances of the angels. These are also imitated in the circular whirlings of the Rafai clarvesh. El Shallistani informs us that the Arab philosophers believed the sevenfold circum ambulation to be symbolical of the motion of the planets round the sun. It WAS adopted by the Greeks and Romans, whose Ambarvalia and Ant burbalia appear to be eastern superstitions, intro duced by Numa, or the priestly line of princes, into their pantheism ; and in Britain tho proces sions round the parish preserve the form of the ancient rite. It is the processional of the Romish
and other Christian churches, in which the clerical attendants perambulate the aisles, and is practised in sanctifying a church or a churchyard. At tit Holy Sepulchre, the Greek, Armenian, and othe pilgrims circumambulate. three times. In Irelam i t is a very common practice to circumambulate till graveyard three times before proceeding with 61 corpse to the grave. See Parikarma. In Britain at the time Christianity was established in Irelam hy St. Patrick, and in the N. of Scotland by St Columba, it was a practised rule. Hindus encirch with right hand to the shrine. The Buddhis Bhot, in passing the Mani, always leave it on tlu right.—Northern Barrier; Burton's Mecca, iii. 204